This White Bean and Kielbasa Stew was yet another recipe I came across on Facebook that was intriguing. Beans are filling and full of fiber, the stew has spinach with a tomato base, and I love kielbasa. And all in a slow cooker!! It seemed perfect.
I followed the recipe as instructed, which was basically just open/cut everything and dump it in the slow cooker. The exception was the 6 cloves of garlic…I only put in one…nobody needs that much garlic! I also dumped in frozen precut spinach rather than the fresh stuff. SO much easier than the real stuff. I also added some bella mushrooms since I had them in the house and needed to use them up.
I’ve made this on subsequent cooking days using canned beans rather than dry ones and cutting down on the broth per the comments. It’s come out just fine both times with no noticeable difference, though I like the idea of using canned beans better. Cook’s Country tested beans and says that nowadays canned beans are more reliable in terms of cooking and tastier overall.
This is the pic once the slow cooker was done but before the spinach was added. Look at those tasty pieces of meat. Look at those beautiful beans. Look at those tasty mushrooms. Chock full of umami and deliciousness.
After the spinach was added…
Now it looks like a HEALTHY stew chock full of umami. Yummm.
This recipe made TONS of food. It’s pretty filling and a serving size, at least for me, is very small. I have a hard time getting through even 3/4 of a pint. I parceled them out into pint and quart jars and it filled at least a dozen! I ate it for a very long time.
I promised last post I wouldn’t talk about the Patriots too much, but I make no promises on this post.
I grew up in northwestern Connecticut, where everyone is a Yankees fan and a Giants fan. Unless you’re a Red Sox fan and a Patriots fan. And it seems certain that neither the two shall meet – you are either Boston leaning or New York leaning!
Though I’m uninterested in baseball, my dad is a big football fan. I grew up watching Phil Simms and Bill Parcells dominate the league. For some reason I clearly remember the highly suspenseful Giants win of Superbowl XXV. Lawrence Taylor couldn’t be stopped! Parcells leaving the Giants and moving to the Patriots coincided with my leaving for college in Massachusetts. A football fan is NOT allowed to be a Giants fan in Massachusetts. When Parcells made the jump, so did I. I’ve been a staunch Patriots fan ever since. My dad is a more recent conversion; for a decade it was fun teasing him about how terrible the Giants are and how great the Patriots are. Let me tell you, that Superbowl when the Pats lost against the Giants at the last minute, wow that was painful. I couldn’t even talk about it.
While I didn’t understand how football worked until I was taught how to play the game in high school, the dynamics are fascinating. It’s war in miniature. It’s Capture the Flag times a million. Its a mix of brains and brawn and talent and luck. So many detractors of football call it a brutish game that is only about brawn and running. It’s actually war. The reason Parcells and Belichick have been so massively successful is that they are excellent strategists and strict generals. They don’t put up with bullshit from their troops, they give orders and expect them to be obeyed with 110% effort, and they prize intelligence and adaptability on the battlefield. They’ve had dramatics and allegations and they do what they need to do to get the win. Is it to be admired? Absolutely. Is it something I envy? Sort of. Do I think I would fit into that world? Nope. But I certainly enjoy watching these brilliant and capable men do the work that they’ve devoted their lives to.
I don’t enjoy when these brilliant and capable men do not perform as expected, have a series of bad turns, make stupid mistakes, and generally do incredibly poorly for a majority of the game! It was incredibly frustrating and I was on the verge of turning it off after halftime, but decided to keep watching after the bestie left because I wanted to see it through. I’m a devoted enough Patriots fan that I only buy cable every year for Sept – Feb to watch the Pats games. I wasn’t going to turn off the Superbowl halfway through. I still had a sliver of faith.
And boy did they reward me. Brady and his boys came through in every aspect of the game. It was an amazing experience. I’ve never screamed so loudly in my life. If every other person in New England hadn’t also been watching the game they probably would have called the cops. It was very literally jaw-dropping.
I went to bed extremely late, exhausted, and floating on air. The next day the talk of work was the game, even though most of the people I work with don’t watch football. Something special happened at this Superbowl. It mattered.
Congratulations guys. You deserve every second of celebration.
I decided to do something special for Superbowl Sunday and whip up a bunch of finger foods that I would never typically eat. Among them were these Cheeseburger Egg Rolls. And as incredibly depressed, soul-crushing, and dispiriting the first three quarters of the game were, and as amazingly inspiring, unbelievable, and jaw-dropping the last quarter of the game was…
I remember these egg rolls more clearly than the football.
And I’m a HUGE Patriots fan.
That’s how amazingly scrumptious these egg rolls are.
Yes, they are incredibly fattening. And, like most egg rolls, they are easily over or under done, and not that great after they’ve gotten cold, which happens very quickly.
However, if you get them in that sweet spot, where the wrapper is golden brown and crispy, the inside is hot, the cheese is melted, the condiments are sharp and tangy, the meat gives you that umami fullness…simply amazing. If I ever want to fall hard off my diet wagon, I’d go straight for these.
This was an Allrecipes.com dish that came up on the emails they send you for what you absolutely MUST cook for Superbowl Sunday. I didn’t know that simply clicking the link would start such a star-crossed love affair!
The directions look far more long/complicated than they actually are! Cook some ground beef…put in egg roll wrapper with cheese and whatever condiments you like on your cheeseburger…roll up wrapper and seal with water…fry! They came out golden brown and warm through, with the cheese melted and the ketchup and mustard warm and creamy. And went so fast I have noooooo pictures! Will absolutely, positively make again. I want them right now, actually!
When I saw this recipe for Creamy Orange-Ginger Body Scrub in a recent email from Cooking Light, it was an instant Save to the hard drive moment. I love ginger – that smell that hits your nose and instantly wakes up all your senses – and it pairs excellently with citrus. Having it in the shower as a scrub in the morning? Yes please! In addition to which I thought it would make excellent gifts for some ladies (or gentlemen, I guess…I don’t discriminate) for Christmas.
The recipe is pretty simple, and here’s a screenshot of what you do since Cooking Light decided not to include a link to a printable recipe. PS: why is Cooking Light publishing body scrub recipes?!?!
So…simple, few ingredients, fast to make in a stand mixer. Three things I love.
One roadblock was finding small jars to put them in. Even pint mason jars were too large, and I had to scour stores for a while to find half-pint mason jars to use. Luckily I found a six pack at Wally World before the weekend cookathon, so I was good to go.
It mixed up exactly like the video in the link shows…with one exception. I hadn’t watched the video in a while when I made the scrub, and the directions aren’t clear as to whether you melt the coconut oil or not when mixing. I figured that you should probably melt it, as it would help the sugar go into solution and create a more homogenous mixture before hardening. So…melted the oil, mixed up everything, poured into the mason jars, and stuck them in the fridge.
Here’s why that was the wrong decision!
Don’t get me wrong, the scrub is excellent. Feels nice, obviously exfoliates when you rub the sugary part into your skin, and believe it or not the dog thinks it’s super tasty (no, I didn’t taste it…but you could eat it, I suppose. Not too much or your pipes would get overly lubed!). But because I melted the oil, it separated from the OJ, and by the time the whole thing had cooled down it was the equivalent of a body scrub layer cake. You couldn’t use it without melting the entire jar back down again. Not very practical for use in the shower.
Speaking of not practical, whoever heard of storing their body scrub in the fridge?! “Hey hon, I gotta jump in the shower…let me just run to the fridge first…” I understand why the recommend that, but still…weird.
I ended up still giving it away, but recommended that the giftees either heated the jars, mixed and allowed them to cool slightly before use (doubt anyone would bother to do that, including me) or do what I did, which was to melt the contents of the jar in the microwave and then pour it into a running bath. Gave a great smelling bath that hydrated my skin.
Of course I do want to try it again the RIGHT WAY next time. It’s just like me to manage to screw up a 4-ingredient, 3 step process that actually had an instructional video with it. I would recommend this one to try, I think if you actually followed the directions it would turn out great!
My mom has always has a thing for Junior Mints. When I was in my early teens and heading to downtown Torrington CT on my bike was a Great Adventure for the afternoon, I’d inevitably stop for a soda and candy and pick my mom up a box of Junior Mints on the ride back. Inevitably after a half hour in 90 degree August heat they’d end up as a mass of overheated, glued-together rounds of chocolate and mint…but what’s wrong with that? They always disappeared promptly.
Strangely enough I’m not such a fan of mint candy. Oh, I’ll eat an Andes if it’s offered to me, take in a York if it’s handy, have an Altoid after Indian food, but I don’t seek out mint as a flavoring. If I do eat a minty candy, one is enough.
However given Mom’s history and love affair with Junior Mints, when I ran across this fantastic recipe for Homemade Peppermint Patties on Facebook there was no way I could resist.The one minute video makes it look super easy, and surprisingly enough…it was. Particularly if you have a stand mixer.
I actually had all of the ingredients with the exception of the peppermint extract in the house when I set out to make these guys. I’d been warned not to skimp and buy the cheap extract (and didn’t listen), went out and bought the cheap stuff, and wish I hadn’t. Word of advice that you will probably not listen to: DON’T BUY THE CHEAP EXTRACT! At least for this project, the mint flavoring is an essential component…you don’t want cheap, fake tasting mint flavor. Which is what I got.
The “dough” filling came together exactly as shown in the video on the website and was easy to roll out and chill. Since I was making this as part of a Christmas present, the front porch operated as an excellent chill chest. Once it was set a bit more, I brought it back in the house and cut out the rounds. Probably the toughest part of this recipe was trying to find a cutter that was the right size…I couldn’t find a 2-inch round cutter (everything was either much bigger or much smaller) and I was aiming for a York-sized peppermint pattie. The bestie ended up bringing over a piece of a tea infusino set which I ended up using as a cutter; it worked great!
We used the Wilson chocolate candy melts to coat the filling – they aren’t the best tasting, but they’re wonderful for melting and coating candy – and I decided to forego the crushed candy cane topping. That just seemed excessive. My reusable silicon mats certainly came in handy on this project, as did multiple forks to aid in dipping and allowing excess chocolate to drip off. Once the filling started getting warm, it became more unforgiving, and next time I’d probably do it in batches rather than bring the filling in from the cold all at once.
The one big criticism I had of this recipe probably stems from my ignoring good advice and adding the cheap peppermint extract. I thought the filling had an overly toothpaste quality to it. Every time I ate one I felt like I was brushing my teeth. However I was the only one with this complaint. The recipe made a huge number of patties – easily 30, possibly more if you rolled the dough thinner than recommended and used a smaller cutter than 2″ – and filled up a gallon-sized bag plus extra. Mom was thrilled and everyone in the family ate the mints freely. I was the only one displeased!
Sadly I didn’t remember to take photos of this particular culinary adventure, and yes, I’m upset at myself for that. You’ll have to be satisfied with The Gunny Sack’s photo. On that particular night the bestie and I were in production mode for a variety of foodstuffs in preparation for Christmas. When I get on a roll in cooking, I don’t think about anything else but the next step to tackle. I promise, though, they looked like round chocolate coated minty goodness. Pretty much exactly what you’d expect to see coming out of a York wrapper. I would definitely try it again with non-fake extract! Would make great gifts for coworkers (wrapped more nicely than in a ziploc bag).
I don’t make clothing very often when I crochet, mostly because it comes out too big, too small, too full of holes, or just generally ugly (in my opinion). It also, in my pre-weight loss days, was too warm for me. Oh, I make the usual crocheter’s regalia of hats and scarves, but that’s outerwear. I’m talking about a sweater. I’ve never crocheted a sweater. And I don’t intend to, except perhaps as punishment for myself (making it) and someone that I really dislike (as the recipient of said sweater).
I’ve made attempts at various cardigans that inevitably end up being thrown out or given away (to then be thrown out). But I was inspired by a coworker who is usually a knitter but has forayed into the world of crocheted clothing recently and asked me for help. She’s using a beautiful, thick soft self-striping yarn called Scarfie (one skein makes a scarf, strangely enough) and she wanted to make a cocoon shrug out of it. Well of course once I saw her pattern, I had to make a shrug of my own.
I did a variety of research to try to find a pattern that worked up fast and easy but still produced a shrug that I would actually wear. I settled on this Granny Cocoon Shrug on Ravelry but simplified it to just making hdcs across. I bought my own set of Scarfie yarn on sale at Joanns (hooray!). I chose the forest [green]/black for me in the hopes it would bring out my eye color and match with what I typically wear, which is very natural colors. The pattern is basically make a square (rectangle) of hdcs across until you get sick of crocheting or your square is long enough; fold corners until they meet each other; sew or crochet from corners to 3/4 of the way up the side of each, leaving a space for an armhole. I finished the edges very simply by doing hdcs all the way around each opening. The only thing I added was two braided lengths of yarn, one on each side, so I could tie the shrug closed over my front.
This project used a little over two skeins of yarn and came out (I’m surprised to say) very well. As soon as I finished it I wore it to work over a tank top and jeans and it kept me toasty, but not too toasty, all day. It was soft and comfy and dind’t get in my way. I’d say the only complaint I have about it is the natural drape of the cocoon shrug design itself, which inevitably causes bunching of fabric at your neck. It’s a small complaint though; the shrug is super comfortable and I did it over two days – pretty fast. Maybe this will be my first step to the road to sweater-ville?!
The Rugged Maniac does not pitch itself as an unusual OCR…but it is. It doesn’t pitch itself as a tough course…but it is. It pitches itself as a fun, diverse OCR with an excellent after party…and it’s definitely that. It’s name implies that it’s for crazy, hardcore OCR people who strive for the toughest challenges…it’s not really.
The Rugged Maniac (for those of you questioning it, the pronunciation is rug-ged, two syllables) has it’s birthplace in the lovely little town of Southwick, MA at the Motocross course there and has spawned into events across the country. It has a corporate backer (Men’s Health) but seems to have a quieter reputation than the Spartan races but most definitely has a faithful following.
I stumbled across the RM in 2015 while looking for OCRs in the New England area. I came across it late in the game, so the ticket prices were rather high, but one of the perks of the RM is that you can volunteer in the morning of a race and run for free that afternoon (or run in the morning and get reimbursed when you volunteer in the afternoon). Myself, bestie C, and her daugher J all signed up to volunteer in the morning and then run for free in the afternoon. It seemed the easiest way to run a rather expensive OCR for free and still have a great day. Plus, bonus points for happening over my birthday weekend. We wanted to make a trip out of it.
We headed down 495 South the day before the race with the mood high. We managed to hit my old stomping grounds of Milford, MA around dinner time – I lived and worked in the Blackstone Valley area for nearly ten years – and stopped at one of my very favorite restaurants, The Alamo. I was introduced to The Alamo when I started working as an EMT for (now defunct) Pathways Ambulance, who had a base up the street from the restaurant. Do you remember the cute youngest kid from Malcolm in the Middle, the brainy one with the big ears? His parents run the Alamo, and the entrance – back when I first frequented the place – used to be carpeted with pictures of the kid with various stars in various famous places. Since he’s grown up, I think he told them to take the pics down, so now it just looks like a Mexican restaurant. But his father seriously looks just like him.
The Alamo has excellent fresh food, great drinks, huge portions, and very reasonably priced. They also have (usually terrible) karaoke and other special nights at the bar upstairs. You’ll be hard pressed to get into the place on a summertime Friday night. We managed to hit it right on a crisp fall night, however, and had a great meal with no waiting before hitting the road towards southeastern MA.
We ended up staying at a pretty bootleg motel off the interstate that C had booked for us (same story in 2016, come to think of it…guess I shouldn’t leave accomodation planning to her anymore) and woke up early the next morning to get to the race by the volunteer’s allotted time.
Note for future OCR volunteers: early morning in late September in New England can get pretty frikkin cold. I was thoroughly grateful for my multiple layers while we were volunteering and equally happy to strip them off while we ran.
Waiting for the first race to start in my fancy well-used OCR shoes.
Volunteering was…well, kind of useless. It was obvious that they didn’t really need us and had nowhere to really put us, and so stuck us on the first water obstacle and told us to watch and help anyone who might get stuck or hurt. They also handed us a hose and told us to fill up the water obstacle while we waited for the race to start.
Mind you, this is at a dirt motocross track. The ground is entirely made of sand. We could have drained all the local reservoirs and still not had the Shoe Catcher (the name of hte obstacle) more full than perhaps knee height at its deepest. And once the race started, we were completely superfluous. We kept ourselves busy by cheering on the racers and directing those that looped around the course near our obstacle. By the end of the morning my voice was gone, but overall it was a fun time.
Our obstacle, pre-race.
Once our volunteer shift was done, we just sort of…wandered off and checked in with the volunteer coordinator to let them know we were done. We pretty much got a nod and a check off on a list. We promptly went to dump our spare clothes and got race ready!
One of the reasons that the Rugged Maniac is so awesome is because it has many obstacles, many of which I’ve never encountered at any of the other local races. The Shoe Catcher is one. The Accelerator, an enormous waterslide you go down so fast that you skip on the surface of the landing pool several times before sinking, is another.
Post Particle Accelerator and barbed wire crawl, 2015. Did I say you got dirty?
They have long barbed wire slogs through mud, rolling walls to go over, and lots of rope nets and other climbing obstacles. They also have the only Warped Wall that I’ve ever encountered outside of American Ninja Warrior. I’ve made it up there two years in a row now thanks to the help of multiple burly men who offered helping arms. I’m not complaining!
Warped Wall to the right, then you climb over a cargo net, which is draped over the entrance tunnel to the festival area. The start/finish line is only a couple hundred feet from this picture.
For those of you who enjoy a great after party, RM has DJ, music, food, vendors, lots of beer (including a free one for finishing!), contests, and great swag. We never stay long at the after party – usually one or more of us (read: me) is tired and filthy and just wants to get cleaned up. Except for 2015, when C stuck her car key in her sports bra instead of trusting the bag check and managed to lose it while going down the Accelerator. I sat down and enjoyed a nice hard cider while the very nice policemen opened up her car for her. Fortunately J kept the spare. She did not repeat that mistake in 2016!!
You get filthy. It was fun.
After cleaning up at the hotel, I asked the girls on a whim if they’d like to go to the Big E, which always runs through the weekend of my birthday but closes up soon afterwards. It was always a special trip every year to go to the Big E, and I absolutely love the annual trip to wander through the crowds, eat deliciously bad for you fried foods, see the animals, and spend money on silly stuff. My MA besties and I used to deliberately plan a mid-week trip to go (necessitating a day off from teaching, not a hardship for me, cough-cough) when the crowds were less and the parking cheap. After moving to NH it became the matter of a 4 hour drive rather than a 1.5 hour one, and I didn’t go for a few years. After hearing my enthusiastic spiel on the World’s Largest Fair, the girls agreed to make the short trip to Springfield and have their first Big E experience.
It did not disappoint. It was dark and cold again by the time we got there, and there were an equal number of people streaming in and out of the fair. We walked a couple blocks from parking to the nearest entrance and managed to arrive at the fair near my very favorite part – the State buildings! We wound in and out of each building, grabbing pamphlets and snacks (kettle corn – the best) and seeing the sites, and also grabbed a not-t0-be-missed Big E eclair and cream puff, consumed while wandering through the exhibits. It was the first time I’ve ever stayed at the Big E until the buildings started to shut down. It was a wonderful time.
Barbed wire crawl 2016. Nice boob shot. Also, I learned to wear sleeves when I knew I was going to be crawling a long distance!
2016’s trip to RM was very similar to 2015 except we decided not to volunteer, we just bought tickets to an afternoon run and drove down there the morning of to save a night at a hotel. We ran the race and cleaned up, and enjoyed a night of R&R (shopping and eating fattening food). The next morning we arrived at the Big E just as the gates were opening and had a great time wandering through the barns before the crowds descended. We took up a majority of the day just soaking in the sights before heading home.
I look very much forward to repeating the experience in 2017. Rugged Maniac remains high on my list of best OCRs that you can run in the New England area.
Everyone is in Superbowl LI frenzy at the moment, and since the Patriots are playing I’m allowed to enjoy all of the excitement and festivities (instead of being angry and bitter about whatever loss we may have suffered). One of the Facebook Live videos that Food Network has recently posted is of one of their chefs making a 21-layer Quesadilla. It was an entertaining video and I was intrigued at how, after assembling, pressing, and cooking the quesadilla in the oven, how it could come out of the pan whole and you could cut it like a cake. I decided I absolutely HAD to try it, although I recognize the impossibility of being able to eat a 21 layer quesadilla all by myself.
Fortunately, bestie C. had stayed the night before the Blizzard Blast with me and was also enthused about the notion of a quesadilla layer cake, so we immediately set to it.
The ingredients are pretty simple. Tortillas, shredded cheese, and whatever quesadilla toppings you would like. I bought a can of refried beans, had some black beans already, and cooked some ground turkey with Adobo seasoning. I don’t much like peppers or onions and put the kibosh on C.’s idea of adding those, although it would have benefitted from something more wet like a layer of salsa occasionally. If you like spicy, put in some jalapenos or other peppers.
The quesadilla is layered in a cake pan. I sprayed the bottom with cooking spray, put down a tortilla, and then proceeded to layer ingredients separated by tortillas on top. The biggest challenge turned out to be the black beans, which just congregated in the middle or rolled off the sides. Next time I’ll add them to the refried bean layer and stick them in place instead!
Once the cake has been assembled, it needs to be compressed and set for a couple hours so that everything doesn’t fall apart once it’s baked. We topped the massive construction – around 18 or 19 layers high, I lost count – with another cake pan and managed to zip tie the entire thing closed to keep it compressed in the fridge. Alternatively you can top it with another pan with some heavy cans in it. It compressed from about 2 feet high to about 18 inches by the end of it’s time in the fridge. After two hours – or for our cake, about 24 hours – you put it in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or so until the whole thing warms up and it’s ready to eat.
The quesadilla tower popped out of the pan easily and I was shocked at how it cut into slices so easily – it was really like cutting a slice of cake. There was no worries about it toppling or the gooey bits oozing off of the rest of the layers. It was quite a mouthful, and delicious!
I’d say the only criticism is that it was a bit dry. I solved that problem easily with application of sour cream, and then it was excellent! One slice was more than enough for me to be VERY filled up. C.’s teenaged bottomless-pit daughter ate two slices that night when she got home after work. This is definitely a family meal! I guess it could potentially be a party meal, but since you have to prepare it ahead of time, there is no way to cater to tastes for fillings unless you knew ahead of time or (what I did) kept it rather bland. I can certainly see slicing it into thin pieces and serving it as party food however!
First OCR of the season was a great one! This was my first time doing the Blizzard Blast, a 3-4 mile course that takes place at the Shedd Park in Lowell MA, and what a great one it was!
The day started with a moderate sleep in and some pancakes with bacon and sausage. Hey, when you’re racing, you gotta do a carb/protein mix to keep you going – short-term burn and long-term burn (that’s my excuse, anyway). Bestie C. and I packed up the car and the pooch and headed southwards. Lowell is only a little over an hour away and the day was sunny and cool, with temps in the high 30s. It was a nice day to run.
We met my sister, who would be dog handling while we ran, and arrived at the parking area 45 minutes before our wave was due to set off. Unfortunately they had run out of space by that time – I guess there were lots of early runners! – and redirected us to a parking area down the street, which was also out of space. We managed to squeeze into one (and I did my parallel parking for the year) and catch a bus to the check in area. Huge plus and applause should go to the organizers for having so many shuttles available. There was little to zero wait time the entire day.
This race is a little unusual in that there was a parking area, a shuttle to the check in area, and then another shuttle to the actual race. It’s understandable since there is no large parking areas in each location, but still strange. Anyway, we arrived at the check in area, a large bowling alley called Wamesit Lanes in Tewksbury, and received our bibs, t-shirts, timing chips, and balaclavas with rapidity. I’m a little surprised we got loaded down with so much stuff before heading into a race, but there were bag check options and I suppose the t-shirt could have been picked up after rather than before the race. As it was, my sister was a convenient pack animal for all of our unexpected booty.
We loaded on to a second bus to take us to the race. Kyra was extremely popular with the racers and got a head pat or lovings from everyone who boarded. Once we arrived and unloaded, there was a brief pit stop at the bathrooms at the park – something I’m glad I didn’t have to take advantage of – and we managed to squeeze into the 11:30 wave rather than wait another 15 minutes for our officially assigned 11:45 wave time. My sister and Kyra saw us off and then wandered around the park and said hi to pretty much everyone there, from what I’ve heard.
Unusually, there was no snow on the ground over a vast majority of the race, which was extremely lucky for C. and I. It had been recommended to us to buy spiked shoes to do this race but I hadn’t been willing to shell out $150 for some shoes that I wouldn’t wear too often, particularly for a race in which I’d already paid an entrance fee. However if there had been snow or ice on the ground the way there typically is in New England at the end of January, we would have been in serious trouble. As it was, we both wore sneakers and just had to be extremely careful in certain areas where there was ice cover remaining. It was very obvious who were the experienced runners with spiked shoes, and who had never run before in sneakers.
The race began with a series of snow hills (you had to wonder where they kept this snow before bringing it in for the race!), followed on to the stone wall surrounding the park, and then wound around the back of the park and up the hill. There were a few 6-7′ walls to get over and then an attempt at an obstacle with some Christmas lights strung back and forth across the path, but previous runners had obviously tripped on them at some point and tore them down. It was a good thought though! The first real obstacle was climbing through a spiderweb of hoses strung within a gazebo (excellent out-of-the-box thinking there), very fun. The race progressed back up a hill and came to a keg carry. The race is sponsored by Shock Top Brewery and empty kegs feature prominently in many of the obstacles. In this one, we had to carry a keg down the hill a distance and then roll it back up the hill. Surprisingly, I had no trouble with the keg carry – it was relatively light and I put it on my shoulders – but had great difficulty with the keg roll back up the hill. The path snaked back and forth at least a dozen times and there is very little training you can do to prepare for hunching over, pushing a keg, and going uphill for quite a distance. I had to keep stopping because my quads and back were screaming.
Next was a pleasant run and a new set of obstacles – a Christmas tree barrier! There were several of these throughout the race using unbought and leftover Christmas trees, piled on top of each other across the path to make fragrant and interesting barriers. There was an obstacle at the top of (yet another) hill that was a qualifier for the OCR World Championships. The Devil’s Staircase was an A frame with spaced bars that you had to go up and then move across hand-over-hand. I was not interested – I know I don’t have the upper body strength to do that sort of obstacle yet – and simply skipped it.
The run started weaving downhill again and the next obstacle was great fun. There were 10 paintball guns lined up, and we got ten chances to hit some deflated snowtubes that had been pinned up some distance away. I’ve never had a paintball gun obstacle at an OCR before! It was great!
We headed back downhill, around and over multiple bleachers and benches surrounding the baseball field before heading back into the trees and coming into the best obstacle I’ve ever had at a race – a downhill sledding obstacle! You grab a flying saucer from a pile of them and slide down yet another hill, hopefully (or hopefully not) avoiding a large bump in the middle of the hill guaranteed to send you flying. I hit the bump straight on – not intentionally – and cleared several feet of air. My first time sledding in quite a while, and if I thought my butt was up to it I would done that obstacle several more times.
On the way down…Catching air!Landing…ouch!Woohoo!!
After hauling my sore butt back up the hill to return the sled, it was a quick jaunt through the woods and down again to the keg swing obstacle, another upper body obstacle in which you had to swing from suspended keg to keg across a distance. Yet again there was no way I was going to be able to do this obstacle (damn my lack of upper body strength!), so I dangled from a keg for 10 seconds or so before letting go and continuing on.
Shortly after was the Christmas tree drag, in which you grabbed a long rope tied to the base of a Christmas tree and dragged it up and down yet another hill. It’s surprisingly difficult and takes a great deal of leg strength; there are portions where you’d swear you were dragging the entire earth behind you. After trying out several techniques I found the one that worked best was simply to wrap the rope around your waist, face up the hill, and plow through it. Over the years in an effort to reach beyond the negative ‘you can’t do it’ thoughts my brain conjures up during these times, I’ve developed the technique of counting to myself as I move forward. I count four steps – 1…2…3…4 and then start over, again and again. As long as I’m counting I know I’m moving. If I start losing count and stuttering, I know I’m getting tired, but hey, I’m still counting, and it gives me a boost. If I can’t count any more, I stop. It’s surprising how well this stupid little trick works! It keeps my brain occupied with counting so that I don’t think of how much work I’m doing or how I can’t do it, it keeps my legs churning because really, how hard can it be to take 4 more steps? And it keeps me motivated to keep going. Since my particular bugaboo while running is going up hills, this technique has saved me more than once.
Once I made it back to the bottom of the hill with my tree, my sister and Kyra were there waiting for us! It was great to have some smiling faces (and barks and yips of eagerness) at the end of a particularly tough obstacle. Once we got some loves from Kyra, C. and I set off again (much to Kyra’s distress, as she wasn’t coming with us) and headed around a playground and some tennis courts. We navigated across a wall using fingers and toes and headed into some tennis courts to do a keg hoist – surprisingly easy to do compared to the Spartan Herc Hoist – and then set off into the back of the tennis courts and on to pavement.
This was where I really started to drag. We were at least several miles into the course already, and straight running without obstacles is not fun to me. My legs were starting to cramp and I was getting quite warm, but there was nowhere to dump my extra layers. I was starting to feel the long break that I’ve had between the last time I ran and now (it’s been several months at least). The course wound around an elementary school and stopped briefly at an obstacle where you had to throw a football through some suspended tires. After another short distance we navigated a brief Christmas tree barrier before getting to what for me was a real groaner of an obstacle. We were given a Christmas tree (no rope this time) and had to drag or carry it up and around and back down the crown of a hill. It was probably a quarter of a mile but felt like an eternity. I started out by dragging my tree (I stupidly chose the first one I came to rather than picking out a better suited one) but quickly realized that it would be very difficult over rough ground and take forever, and stopped to haul my tree over my shoulders. I won’t say this was any easier – Christmas trees are surprisingly heavy! – but at least my legs and shoulders could support the weight differently, the motion wouldn’t be so jerky, and I wouldn’t have the friction of tree vs ground to contend with. I made it, peering through the pine boughs like a creepy forest creature, and gratefully dumped the tree back where we started the circle.
We tackled a relatively easy obstacle next in which you had to scootch up along ropes using bowling pins for grips and then down another side. Further up there was a “through” wall, and then a rope climb that we skipped. There was an excellent forearm workout in which we wound up a rope around a stick from which a mini-keg was suspended. There was another upper body obstacle – a peg board climb – that we skipped and yet another wall that I had to be helped over. After another short run, we emerged from the woods to the main park area again, and I met my sister and Kyra near the trail. Kyra was so nuts that I ended up grabbing her leash and taking her with me for the last quarter-mile or so! The second to last obstacle was an interesting one – you were given two cement blocks and had to use them as stepping-stones (picking up one and putting it in front of the one you were standing on) to cross a muddy patch and back again. It was an excellent squats and arms exercise.
Then we rounded the final bend and picked up a keg for the final carry around a playground and up over several snow mountains to the finish line! Kyra absolutely loved being a part of things and was much applauded (and received MY medal!) at the finish line. The brat seemed very pleased with herself.
Kyra got a medal!
There was a brief wait for the shuttle to get back to the lanes and then an immediate hop on to the return shuttle to the car. We didn’t bother with the after-party – we were a combination of sweaty and cold and just wanted to change and eat – and very quickly got back to the car and promptly had a lovely meal at Longhorn once the bestie and my sister had a Starbucks fix.
It was pretty late in the day by the time we got home but it was well worth the travel and the cost. What an excellent race. Next year will greatly depend on how much snow is on the ground and how much spike shoes will cost, but I’d love to do it again!
I was recently doing my usual surf-for-gold crochet pattern searches and came across a post in The Crochet Addict of a woman who was nearly done with her plaid blanket and was expressing what a relief it was to be finished with it. The blanket was gorgeous (I went looking for the photo afterwards and couldn’t find it again!), in the typical red and black plaid colors with some other colors woven through it.
I had never seen or considered doing something with plaid patterns before. I’m not Scottish, I don’t have a tartan, I don’t particularly like plaid (though I live in hillbilly NH, I should!) so it’s never been something that I’ve been motivated to investigate. This blanket was gorgeous enough to give me a focus for my searches. I thought maybe a scarf would give me enough work to sample the crocheted plaid workup without committing to a huge blanket.
I found this pattern for a Big Tartan Super Scarf that looked pretty, but looking at the pattern a second time, it takes FIFTEEN balls of yarn! FIFTEEN! As pretty as it is, it might as well be a blanket. No thanks.
I continued my Googling and came across this site for 10 Free Plaid Crochet Patterns. The first pattern for wash cloths (the direct link is here) seemed fast and workable, and what I really liked is that the pattern didn’t call for weave throughs of chains or strands of yarn once the frame of the plaid has been worked up. For one, the Crochet Crowd said that weaving the yarn was a huge nuisance, and I would rather generate a product that I knew had all of the stitches attached across the weave.
Exemplar photo from pattern site.
There is a helpful video on the website, though I prefer to just follow a written pattern unless I get really stuck on a pattern. The only time I had to refer to the video while working up my wash cloth was on how to work the final chains around the rest of the work to make the plaid design.
One side of plaid.
Per usual I ignored gauge and hook size suggestions and just used my favorite J hook and figured I would deal with whatever got worked up. And boy I did. This swatch that I finished measures about 2′ x 4′. More of a body towel than a wash cloth!
Other side of plaid.
And, per usual, I don’t like it. It doesn’t look plaid to me! It looks like a white background with a bunch of stripes on it. Perhaps it’s the colors I chose – rather at random and trying to align with the colors of the exemplar photo – or perhaps it’s that the hook I used is so large that the stitches aren’t close enough together to get the plaid look going. Not sure what. But I know I don’t like it. I don’t even know which side is supposed to be the ‘right’ side.
It was going to go into the Goodwill bag until C. saw the finished project and complimented it. She promptly got the mat/towel/large wash cloth stuffed in her bag to go home with her.
I’ve done some more searching and intend to do a faux-plaid scarf with variegated yarn using a yarn pooling method and the moss stitch. Will update on how that goes.
The Dirty Girl Dump 